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Ossian, is of no very great antiquity, and is evidently corrupt in the 

 text. The poem is on the death of Carrill, killed by Goll, or Gaul, as 

 he is called by the modern Ossian ; but the first stanza tells us that the 

 dispute was between Carrill and Momad, though in the entire poem 

 we hear not one word more of Momad, but Goll is mentioned as 

 the opponent of Carrill, who lost his life in the conflict. Here is 

 evidently a corruption of the text. Again we have in the first line of 

 the third stanza, " Clachan agus talmhian trom" which is trans- 

 lated, (p. 340) " Stones and heavy earth ;" now talmhinn, or more 

 properly talmhuinn, is an oblique case of talamh, earth, and, there- 

 fore, could not be used in the nominative ; so that here we have bad 

 grammar as well as the corruption of the text. In the third line of 

 the same stanza we find " A'cliarachd re fad an la," translated 

 " Whilst they struggled during the day." The translation is here 

 incorrect, and the Gaelic is ungrammatical, corrupt, and modern. 

 The word la, day, is the nominative, but the genitive is here re- 

 quired, and instead of la, we should have lae or luoi. There are other 

 objections to the word Cliarachd. If it can be received at all, it 

 must be confessed a modern coinage. We defy the two Highland 

 Societies to produce any ancient manuscript in which it is used. We 

 know, indeed, that Cliath has been, in modern writings, sometimes 

 used for Gliadh, a battle, and from that the word Cliatharachd, 

 fighting, might be formed ; but if such a word can be found in Gaelic, 

 it must be modern, and Cliarachd, though nearly the same sound, 

 must be a corrupt representation of that word. Examples of this 

 kind of corruption, and of bad grammar, might be produced front 

 almost every stanza of this pOem ; but it is submitted, that what is 

 here shewn is sufficient to prove the corruption of the best Scotch 

 copies of ancient Gaelic poems. It is worthy of observation, that 

 the words "Tighe Teafnhra," "The House of Tara," in the first 



